Metro News & Reviews

Digging set to begin on Central Subway project in San Francisco

Clever/fun PR move by the San Francisco MTA: they’ve created Twitter accounts for both of the tunnel boring machines that will be used to dig the Central Subway project. The subway will extend one of the existing light rail lines for 1.7 miles north between the Caltrain station — Caltrain is the commuter rail serving the San Francisco Peninsula — to Chinatown and North Beach.

There was a public ceremony held on Friday in San Francisco to celebrate the tunneling, which is scheduled to begin June 10. Of course, we’re ramping up to begin work on the first segment of the Purple Line Extension between Wilshire/Western and Wilshire/La Cienega.

Here is a segment that ran last week on KCBS in the Bay Area; sorry about the commercial.

Hi Sam, the ridership and modeling does not conclude that North Beach ridership is the purpose of the subway, or has a significant impact. Further, the subway is planned to extend to Union and Columbus – three blocks from the “center” of North Beach. (//www.centralsubwaysf.com/sites/default/files/maps/alignment_map_091412.pdf) The purpose for the subway, as found in its project documents, is to connect the major modes of transit in the Stockton/4th street corridor – not to serve North Beach.